My thanks to Cookiemonster and Simplesi. Without their examples, I would not have persisted in my efforts to make the HDMI work.

The HDMI socket will work with this STB if you follow these instructions.

Connect the STB to the TV with both SCART and HDMI cables.

Select channel 999 and choose "Video Output"

Select HDMI - Option 4. A warning appears to say that if the wrong cable is selected, it will return to original setting after 10 seconds.

Take the option 1 Start new mode and continue.

The screen willl go blank, and after 10 seconds, it returnes to the cable select menu, indicating that the SCART connection has been re-instated. Ignore this.

Select the HDMI channel on your TV. It will indicate no signal ..... but ...... if you turn the Telsey box off and on again, you will find that you are receiving Tiscali via the HDMI cable!

Like Simplesi, I think that there is an definite improvement in picture quality.

One would hope that there is a similar routine with the new PVR.

I hope that Tiscali will review these instructions (which, once you know them, are very simple) and include HDMI in their future customer support. It does seems to offer a tangible improvement in quality of the end product.

i tried your way but to no avail. so this is how i did it.
Connect the STB to the TV with both SCART and HDMI cables
Select channel 999 and choose "Video Output"

Select HDMI - Option 4. A warning appears to say that if the wrong cable is selected, it will return to original setting after 10 seconds.

but in them 10 seconds turn over to your hdmi channel and select ok with the tiscali remote.. you gorra be quick

Mermio, glad you were successful!

I wish Tiscali would write an easy to follow procedure, rather than leaving their customers to work it out by trial and error. The on-screen instructions are dire.

I know that it's not HD, but did you notice a quality improvement over the SCART connection?

yes there is definatly an improvement and it was worth spending a tenner on the lead...but me and the engineer was trying to set it up . i worked out how to do it next day

Many many thanks!!

OH is over the moon and acting like a child again now that his new HD flatscreen has improved 10 times better

Only found this thread once my STB had set it itself into HDMI mode - and now it doesn't work!
Was told without prompting by Homechoice that my new STB (to replace original 3yr old Silver STB) would support HD so "my picture would dramatically improve".
So today when I got the new STB, went out, bought an HDMI cable and plugged it in, setting the STB video output to HDMI.
Now its all messed up - and 45 mins with the Tiscali helpline running through the following button pressing:

power off to back of STB
power on
power off on handset
power on on handset
999 then OK
OK x 4 times
58 then OK x 3 times

and repeat ad nauseum to no effect. Then the helpline guy said a week for someone to come out and fix it. OH, and this wasn't the fault of Tiscali - it was a "customer action". and that Tiscali does not support HDMI. The cable is there for future use apparently.

So its my fault for listening to TWO different employees of Tiscali. and not looking here first. (I only found this thread whilst on hold with the helpline.)

If anyone there knows a clever way of resetting the STB to scart that means I dont have to wait a week, I would be most grateful.

Thanks from someone who doesn't particularly rate Tiscali at the moment.

Sorry about your problems

Just had a look at my box (telesy fs6) and if you carry out the following steps I think it should start working via scart again.

1. Power on the box
2. Wait for 30 seconds
3. Press OK
4. Wait for 10 seconds
5. Press 999
6. Wait for 5 seconds
7. Press OK and wait for a second
8. Press OK and wait for a second
9. Press OK
10. Wait for 10 seconds (Don't press anything in this time)
10. You should hopefully now see a picture!
Last edited by fishywik : 22-01-2008 at 21:34

If this doesn't work for you, If you post a request for help here: http://www.tiscali.co.uk/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=412 I might be able to offer some assistance.

We will write instructions for this once we are ready to support it

To both the respondents - thank you for your advice. I have now successfully got my picture back using Fishy's step by step guide, which is great!!
Too scared to fiddle with my HDMI lead and see if I can get it to work with the STB - mainly as my LCD TV doesn't register the HDMI cable even when its plugged into both STB and TV.
Thanks again - much appreciated!

You're very welcome Giles

I had a similar problem.
I'd set the STB to hdmi and my tv wasn't recognising it.
After much switching on and off of tv and stb and hair pulling out and why did I mess about thoughts the tv picked the hdmi signal albeit with a purple tint.
i got back into the stb settings (999) and was really tempted just to switch back to scart, I didn't and enabled the hdmi again. Fortunately it all went swimmingly well and the hdmi is now working.

Just had another engineer in to update my STB and interestingly, the problem was the STB - he swapped for a new STB and lo and behold got the HDMI to work.
So, if you have problems running through the HDMI - it may well be the STB.
That said, I can't really see any visible difference in picture quality anyway - and certainly not the "dramatic improvement" I was promised (see my previous posts). Searching elsewhere on this forum others have stated a vast improvement in resolution by using the HDMI cable - is this really true or perhaps a placebo effect? Can anyone hand on heart say its really changed their picture quality?
Regardless, Tiscali have been proactive on this matter and I appreciate their efforts. Let's see how long it takes for my HDMI cable to be put to real use when they offer HD services.

It probably depends on how good the scaler is in your TV. The scaler of a higher-end TV is likely to be better than the one in the Telsey box.

I agree about the upscaler.

I have a Sony w series TV and moved back to the Scart connection as I found things like football didn't look real via the hdmi and the telsey upscaling to 1080 which the hdmi output appears permanently set to. I had noticed the ball making quantum leaps across the screen, which it doesn't so much via scart. Using my TV's own upscaling it definately looks a bit better. I'll be back to hdmi if HD ever comes.

I thought it outputted 576i over the HDMI?

I have a sony 40v3000 which states the input for each channel and it always states the input from the telsey box as 1080i (not 1080p as with other inputs). However, I have a bad sound problem when connected by hdmi where the sound keeps cracking up. I've had to go back to scart as it does not happen here.

I have had TTV for about 2 months. Have been using with HDMI output giving me an improved picture over using the scart output. Then recently the HDMI output has stopped feeding the tv a 1080i signal and now sends one that the tv sees as a pc input. This is a small image in center of screen which when blown up to fill the screen using the tv's options looks as bad as the scart image does.
Had the box replaced today but still have same issue with HDMI output. Very confused! Have Tiscali done something remotely to spoil my viewing?

Hi,
I need to get your customer details, and I need to know what make and model TV you are using. To this end, could you post this in the Tiscali TV forum http://www.tiscali.co.uk/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=412 please.

Thanks